Roger L. Simon:
It’s time for Republicans to give serious thought to what happens if they win the Senate and House this November, as it looks increasingly [1] that they will. While not exactly Pyrrhic, this victory will present a whole range of potential problems and traps that could negatively affect this country’s future and the world. And as we know, we are living in precarious times.
Barack Obama is a man unaccustomed to losing. Life has been exceptionally kind to him, sailing, as he did, through balmy Oahu sunsets, college, law school and career on into the presidency with scarcely a bump. He has been a protected man beyond any in recent memory, feted and praised virtually everywhere he went until the last couple of years. Even now, despite catastrophe after catastrophe, there are acolytes [2]who continue to celebrate him, paying tens of thousands merely to have their photographs taken with him.
When such cosseted people are forced to confront failure, they typically do not do so with grace. They are rarely able to admit fault, as if even a crack in their pristine facades could lead to extreme personality disintegration. We have already seen manifestations of this in Obama’s refusal to acknowledge something so obvious as his own inability to foresee the dangers of ISIS, aka the JV team. Insider books by Robert Gates, Hillary Clinton and Leon Panetta have appeared in rapid succession, implying or directly alleging that the president lives in a bubble, unwilling to listen to advice. He frequently threatens to — and sometimes does — go around the Congress to get his way via, often unconstitutional, executive fiat. We all know that he lies, constantly [3].
This man is angry but highly unlikely to go into an anger management program. Imagine what will happen after November. We could be looking at behavior that would fit the very definition of “acting out [4],” anti-social but on a global scale. And he still has two more years in office.
Do I exaggerate? I hope so, but I fear not. We have to be alert. Anything could happen. Remember: Obama is currently fighting ISIS against his will and only for electoral purposes. When the election is over, and especially if he loses, all bets are off. The man who made the apology tour throughout the Islamic world and was best friends with Islamists Morsi and Erdogan could reappear as never before. What that could mean could be any number of things, but none of them good. The Global War on Terror could become another example of “work-place violence” in an instant. Kurds [5] and Israelis better beware.
The Environmental Protection Agency could become a virtual American gestapo, changing the fabric of our lives, while all sorts of rules and regulations pour down, impoverishing America in the name of income inequality or the all-important “fairness.”
If the Republicans get control of all of Congress, what they had BETTER do is enact some legislation to repair the economy. Doing so will be the best bet possible to wrest control of the White House AND Congress from the liberal ideologues in 2016 and maintain it for a long, long time.
When the liberal Democrats took control of the White House and Congress in 2008, they had the perfect opportunity to solidify their control of our government for decades. The economy was tanking and unemployment was rising; improvements on a terrible economic situation should have been low-hanging fruit. If the Democrats had concentrated on the needs of the people, passing legislation to repair the economy and ease the pain and suffering of those losing their jobs and their hopes, their demonstration of the ability to address economic issues and improve a bad situation, they would have had the gratitude of people suffering through personal hardship and the credibility to lay claim to all the power they ever wanted. But, noooooooooooo.
They chose instead to immediately begin rewarding their campaign loyalists through the “stimulus”. Then they passed possibly the worst piece of legislation ever conceived. Meanwhile, the economy tanked further, due both to the trillions of dollars of debt incurred for nothing substantial and the ominous threat of what Obamacare would do (and eventually did) to the economy. This cost them the iron grip on power in 2010 and, instead of licking their wounds and working to repair the economy, they decided to just lock down the entire process.
This gives the Republicans their opportunity. If they don’t move immediately to help people in economic pain (and I don’t mean by handing out free phones) they will prove themselves no better than the worthless Democrats and not deserve their access to power. If they do, they have the opportunity not only to help a lot of desperate people but to go a long way to keep clue-less liberal ideologues out of power indefinitely. And that would be good for everyone.
One of the first things they need to do is start the process of getting the budget balanced. Even passing a budget to send to Obama would be a huge improvement over what Reid has been doing. I’d also forget about a “wave” election. Given that the House is probably about as divided as it’s going to get, the best case scenario for the Republicans is that they pick up 5-7 seats in the Senate, a like number in the House, and lose a governorship or two. To me, while still a rebuke of Obama and Reid, it is not a “wave”.
@Bill:
Gots to disagree with you on that — repairing the economy will involve actual WORK and expension of ENERGY — by 2016 the people will be screaming for their ‘gimmie-dats’ and rocking chairs
@Bill:
They had control of the senate forever and then house in 2006 >> you should quit with the mis-statements >>
@Bill:
Oh come on now — that is what the demo-commie-cRATs always do — TAKE CARE OF THE(IR) PEOPLE — you know – the “little” guy(s)!
@Bill:
Where the ‘ell have the RINOs been the last 6 years? crying jonnie and mushie Mitch, Goober Ms. Lindsay and MuckStain — no ‘effing chance!
@Bill:
Actually — that seems to be a ‘given’
Yep! It’s the economy stupid! ¯\(ツ)/¯ The DemocRAT’s blew it in 2008. 1st stupid act was passing Obamacare which has had a serious impact on jobs, reducing most to part time, killing our economy, attacking the Middle Class hitting them with inflation that is going out of site… The only ones to profit from liberal policies are the already rich and career politician. In other words, they have been turning America into a Communist utopia…
@B Ambrose:
Re: “Those who profit from — ”
You left out the Islamists and all the other ENEMIES of the US Declaration of Independence and The US Constitution >> which includes every dam ‘ism existing or has existed — basically most of the world!